


Metempsychosis

by gaara (gaaraa)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, semi-au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-21 07:16:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6042892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaaraa/pseuds/gaara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>me·tem·psy·cho·sis (metəmˌsīˈkōsəs,məˌtemsiˈkōsəs):<br/>noun,<br/>the supposed transmigration at death of the soul of a human being or animal into a new body of the same or a different species.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Gaara-centric, but may switch pov at some point, not too sure yet.

He wakes up to a black abyss that stretches on as far as he can comprehend. There is only nothingness and himself. There is no time or any illusion of progress. Nothing to do, nothing to see, nothing to hear. His mind is blank.

He resigns himself to eternity.

He wakes up to a sunrise kissing the hilltops. There is a pink-orange sky that stretches to the horizon, and on that horizon is promise. There is hope, despite hope not being a word in his vocabulary. In all actuality, there are no words.

There are trees that stretch for miles, cut only by lakes and rivers that are already teeming with visitors of all species. He looks at it all from his cliffside cave and wonders which will be easiest to kill - and alternately, which will be most likely to kill him.

He wakes up to the sound of people shouting. In this small settlement, he’s been known as an outcast, and it’s never really bothered him until now. He remembers things well - better than anyone else - and it perturbs people. He knows how to do things that he’s never been taught, like it’s muscle memory that never actually needed to be memorized. He knows how to hunt, and how to kill, without going out with his father to find food. He is a threat, and it’s taken until now for his people to turn on him. The only one to stand by him is his best friend, who holds his hand now and squeezes as the swarm of intruders break down his door.

He wakes up as a woman this time, to the rough jerking of the cart she’s been sleeping in. The daughter of a merchant, she’s been roaming her whole life. From one town to the next, she’s seen seven of the sixteen countries that exist in their region. She doubts her father will ever go anywhere that’s not attached to the mainland, or is further than their tired horses can go. She’s content with that, she supposes. There is some part of her that wants to explore new parts and venture into the unknown, but she’s mostly ruled by the part that wants to stay with her father, and her brothers. 

She’s always been a little odd, knows she wouldn’t be able to make it in the world by herself. So she’ll stay with them for as long as they’ll have her, praying that she isn’t the next item up for sale.

Whenever they enter the Fire Country, her worry eases a little bit, as it does now. She knows that they come from the Wind, and that it should feel like home compared to all of the places that they’ve travelled, but it doesn’t. The only home she’s attached to is the one where her only friend resides, and that is a small village close to the center of this land. It will take two days more to reach at this pace, and the clouds overhead promise to slow them down.

He wakes up to sand. The desert is his home now, stretching vast and hot as far as he can see. When he was a child, it was an adventure to climb the different dunes outside the village walls, but as he grew older he found it easier to just sink in, as if they were calling him back to where he came. He knows now that there are no mysteries to what lies beyond the village, and that it is his duty to stay here unless he’s been released.

He is a monster here, but if he were taken, he would be worse.

He wakes up to sand, but he remembers so much more than the desert.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short addition. Trying to work more on this and develop something resembling a plot.

It’s always blond that catches his eye.

His mother was blond, and his sister, too, but he’s never felt any sort of connection with them the way he does with the color of their hair. It’s like wheat, a sign of health and good fortune, and like the sun that beats down upon them day after day, giving them life.

He remembers darkness, and sometimes he talks about it. But his father has told him it wasn’t real, that he should let it go - it was just a nightmare.

 _Life_ feels like a nightmare.

He has been used; a weapon for those ungrateful. For his father, for his village.

They have tried to kill him.

Because of the thing in his body, the roommate in his flesh suit, they’ve deemed him a monster. They want to kill it, not him – he used to tell himself that, late at night when he was trying to sleep. They just wanted to be rid of such a terrifying force.

He knows better now.

Now, they tell _him_ to kill for _them_. To assassinate rival leaders, would-be invaders, and whoever else it would take for their village to gain an advantage. He’s forced to harness the power of the thing living inside him to meet their needs, and he’ll happily do it if it means he gets validation.

It’s so… lonely, being a monster.

He doesn’t sleep anymore. There’s no reprieve from the prolonged existence. If he happens to pass out, he’ll lose all the control he has over his own body. His autonomy will be taken from him, and he can’t bear to let that happen again.

How long has it been? He can’t recall, anymore.

 

* * *

 

 

He doesn’t wake up at the sun’s first light. He watches it come up, slowly, beautifully. In a world full of misfortune and pain, there are still some things that he enjoys seeing. Reds, oranges, pinks, yellows, all ascending over the horizon – it’s like a moving painting.

He feels at home with the moon, but is enamored with the sun.

His room is just finding its way out of the darkness of the night when a knock comes at his door.

It’s quiet, tentative, like whoever is on the other side doesn’t want to disturb him too much. But it’s already happened, so he’s not sure why they even bother.

“Come in.”

It’s not a request, it’s an order. _Let’s get this over with._

It’s Temari, already dressed and ready for the day. Her expression is somewhere in between sheepish and fearful, and he’s torn between pity and disdain.

Even his own siblings are afraid of him.

“Gaara… It’s time to go.”

That’s right; they’re supposed to be starting a new mission today. It’s a three-day walk through the desert and forest to reach their destination.

Konohagakure.

He finds himself staring, forgetting that he’s supposed to respond. It’s an awkward moment before he grunts an affirmation, and he begins to move from his perch on the desk.

 

His feet find the floor and they’re off.


End file.
